Friends Who Should Not Be Feared
by newbienovelistRD
Summary: Ben feels that history is repeating himself with his Feedback transformation. So it's up to his Conductoid friends to show him there's nothing to fear at all.


It was another hectic day for Ben Tennyson. Although, hectic was a subtle word to describe the day Ben had. He had just stopped a Galvanic Mechamorph that was infected by a virus created by the Forever Knights. The Mechanorph became insane and destructive...and had it's sights on killing Ben.

And worst of all, it reminded Ben of Malware.

Ben barely made it with his life. He tried alien after alien in his attempt to defeat it. It wasn't until he transformed into Feedback to stop him.

And even though Ben stopped the Mechamorph and the Knights, he didn't seem very happy about it.

As Rook was taking Ben home, he noticed his partner acting very quiet. "Are you alright, Ben?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm fine."

Rook did not believe him. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

But Rook kept prying. "Are you sure it has nothing to do with-"

"ROOK!" Ben yelled, silencing his partner. Ben took a deep breath and his voice became unsettlingly calm. "Listen, we beat the bad guys and that's all that matters. I jut want to go home and rest."

Knowing that Ben has had enough, Rook drove off quietly all the way to Ben's house. Ben got out without a word and went inside.

Rook returned to the Grant mansion. When he got there, Feedback and his adopted daughter Sparkle came to welcome him.

"Hi, Rook!" Sparkle chirped. She looked around. "Where's Uncle Ben?"

"He is at home." Rook responded. "He has had a long day."

The next day, Ben and Rook were ready to battle Fistrick's gang. Ben was ready to activate his Omnitrix.

"Give me a good one, Omnitrix." He pressed it down and became Feedback.

This wasn't the alien he wanted. Ben felt fearful in his Conductoid form.

"Ben, what's wrong?" asked Rook.

"This'll snap him out of it!" Fistrick fired his laser cannon straight at Feedback. But Feedback absorbed the laser blast with his plugged fingers. The alien charged at them.

Fistrick and his gang kept firing. But Feedback just absorbed all their firepower and blasted it all back right at them.

The grunts didn't stand a chance. They were taken down as quickly as they committed a crime.

Fuming, Fistrick was about to settle this himself. "Alright, bro! Let's settle this like real men!" He put up his dukes and took on a boxer's stance.

Feedback grinned his wide smile. He put up his fists, they crackled with electricity. "With pleasure."

Fistrick roared as he charged right at them, but Feedback was must stronger. With a swift dodge, Feedback avoided the hit and clobbered the punk with a super charged uppercut.

Feedback gave several mighty haymakers before Fistrick finally collapsed. Feedback stood proudly over his vanquished enemy.

"BEN!"

Ben turned and saw Rook arrive with several Plumbers. "That's enough."

Feedback's green eye went wide. He looked at his still sparking hands. He stood there in silence until the Omnitrix timed out and he was Ben again.

As Fistrick was being arrested, Rook saw Ben run off. "Ben! Where are you going?!"

Ben didn't answer. He just kept running.

* * *

Not wasting another second, Ben went directly to the Plumber Headquarters, Ben was in Blukic and Driba's laboratory. Ben's Omnitrix arm was placed under a strange looking microscope machine.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Ben?" Blukic asked.

"It's for the best guys." Ben said. "Just do it."

Shrugging, the two Galvan activated the machine. It buzzed and whirred, then a jolt of energy hit the Omnitrix.

A few seconds later, the machine deactivated.

"Okay, Ben. Feedback is no longer in your Omnitrix." Driba said.

"Good." Ben got up. "I'm going home."

Ben was ready to leave the base until he was confronted by Rook. The Plumber was not happy. "Ben, what just happened in there?" he demanded.

Ben's balled his hands into fists. Why was Rook getting all up in his business? "It's none of your beeswax. You need to stop bugging me. I can take care of myself." he said bitterly. "And I don't need a paranoid fuzz-bucket like you driving me nuts."

He shoved Rook aside and stormed away.

Rook blinked. "Fuzz-bucket?"

It was getting late. So Ben returned to his home. He went straight to bed and tried to sleep.

But it wasn't a peaceful sleep.

Ben was having a nightmare. He was standing in a dark room, all alone until he heard sparking sounds.

Lightening flashed, and Feedback appeared. He grinned evilly as jolts of energy poured from his fingertips.

"Ben Tennyson..." he hissed. "Did you really think you could get rid of me that easily?" He menaced closer to him. "Why would you abandon me? After all we've been through? I thought I was your favorite!"

Ben backed away from the mad monster. "No! Stay away! You're dangerous! Don't come near me!"

But his plea was ignored.

Feedback aimed his hands and antenna straight at Ben. And fired.

Ben woke up with a scream. He breathed heavily, trying to get his racing heart to slow down.

"Oh, man..." Ben groaned. He flopped back on his bed and tried to get some sleep.

* * *

The next morning, Ben struggled to forget all about his nightmare.

"It's alright," Ben told himself. "Feedback's not in the Omnitrix anymore. There's nothing to worry about."

The more Ben remembered this, the more he relaxed.

In fact, it was quite a relaxing day. There were no missions, no emergencies, nothing! It was a perfectly calm, peaceful day!

So Ben decided to celebrate this normal day the best way he could; playing video games.

"Oh, yeah! Say goodnight, suckers!" Ben said as he fought through his virtual enemies. He may not be fighting anyone in real life, but he was glad video games aren't real life or death battles that risk the end of the universe.

After countless hours of playing, Ben was finally on the verge of beating the entire game.

There was knocking at the door.

Ben just kept playing.

The knocking continued.

Ben kept playing. He was way too deep in the game zone.

He was completely focused. Nothing could stop him now. He was almost there and...

"YES!" Ben tossed his controller in the air and jumped off the couch. "Boss level complete!"

"YEAH! Way to go!"

Ben froze. He turned and sitting on the couch was Sparkle.

"Hi, Uncle Ben!" Sparkle said, waving to the frozen human. "I missed you!" She ran up to hug him but Ben jumped away, his back against the wall.

"Uncle Ben? What's wrong?" Sparkle asked, worrisome.

Ben said nothing. He spun around and was about to run away until he bumped into someone. He fell down on the floor and looked up to see Feedback.

With a scream, Ben got up and ran away. He bolted out the door but was grabbed by something big and black.

Ben struggled in the creature's arms, but something pinched his neck. Ben gasped and his vision started to fade.

* * *

The ground felt soft, but cold at the same time. Where could Ben be? He groaned as he struggled to get up, when he awoke at last, he screamed.

Looking down at him was Feedback and Shocks, also known as Ultimate Feedback.

Ben screamed as he was about to run away, but the two Conductoids lashed out their antennas and grabbed Ben, they pinned him down to the floor and moved closer to him.

"NO! Get back!" Ben yelled as he tried to struggle free. "Get away! AWAY!"

Driven by his own fear, he was actually able to lift himself off the ground.

Surprised, but undeterred, Feedback smiled and used his tail to tickle Ben's side, causing the boy to weaken and be pinned down again.

"Ben, relax." Feedback said. "Don't be afraid."

"No! Stay away from me!" Ben yelled. He struggled and screamed.

The brothers knew how to deal with this. They let Ben go and the hero ran off. He went for the door and tried to open it, but it was locked.

"NO! LET ME OUT! SOMEONE HELP!" Ben screamed as he banged on the door. Hearing chuckles behind him, Feedback and Shocks began crawling towards Ben, hissing menacingly.

Ben screamed, practically scared out of his skin. He tried to hide but the only thing to use as a hiding place was the bed. So he dove onto the bed and hid under the covers, curled up tight and prayed that those electrical monsters won't get him.

For a few minutes or so, nothing happened. Did it really work?

"BOOGA! BOOGA!" Two Conductoids said as they jumped on the bed and started tickled Ben. Ben yelped and laughed, squirming around the covers to get out. He tumbled out of the bed and Shocks wrapped his tail around the boy's waist.

Ben quivered as he was brought to the two aliens. "Please, don't hurt me!" he begged. "I-"

"Ben," Shocks said. "we would never hurt you. We're your friends."

"But right now, you've hurt someone pretty badly." Feedback said.

"I did?" Ben said.

The brother said nothing. They carried Ben out of their bedroom and quietly walked down the hall until they heard something coming from another room.

A different sound was heard. It sounded like someone crying.

The cry of a little child.

The Conductoid brothers put Ben down. This time, Ben didn't run away. He slowly walked over to the sound of the crying. He peeked into the room and spotted Sparkle lying face down, crying into her pillow.

Rachel patted the little alien's back. "Sparkle, please don't cry."

"Uncle Ben doesn't like me any more!" Sparkle sobbed. "What did I do wrong?!"

The sound of Sparkle's cries caused Ben's heart to cripple. "What have I done...?"

"You were becoming so paranoid and afraid that you just hurt my daughter's feelings." Feedback said coldly.

Overwhelmed with guilt, Ben felt ready to cry himself.

"It's not too late to set things right, Ben." Shocks said. "I think you know what to do."

Knowing what he meant, Ben entered into Sparkle's room. "Hey,"

Sparkle looked up, tears streamed down her cheeks. "Uncle Ben?" she sniffled.

Ben walked over and sat down beside her. "Sparkle, I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I don't really hate you."

"Then...why did you run away from me?" Sparkle wiped her green eye.

"Well, I..." Ben sighed and decided to just spit it out. "Because I was becoming afraid of Conductoids."

"What?! Buy why?!" Rachel said.

"Because...I already got carried away with my Feedback form before and I ended up losing him. And I was afraid that the same thing was happening again so I had Blukic and Driba to remove him from the Omnitrix before I got too attached to him again."

"And you were avoiding us because you thought we would corrupt you or hurt you or something like that?" Feedback said.

Ben nodded.

"Ben, every alien is different from what you think." Feedback said. "You learned your lesson the first time, so just keep it in mind. Don't use your Conductoid form so much and keep the other ones in mind."

"And we're not mad at you. We love you, Ben. You're part of our family." Shocks said.

But Ben still felt bad.

"Hey, what's with that sad face?" Rachel said.

Ben gulped, getting an awful feeling about this.

Feedback used his antenna to grab Ben's arms and held them up high. Ben yelped and squirmed. "Oh, no!"

"Oh, yes!" Shocks said. He and Feedback began tickling his underarms.

Ben laughed as he felt their plugged fingers tickle him. Who knew plugged fingers tickled just as much as normal ones?

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Hey! Come on! Don't tickle! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Ben pleaded.

Rachel and Sparkle joined in and tickled Ben's stomach. Ben's laugh make the walls shake.

After a few minutes of tickling, everyone finally stopped.

"Feel better?" Feedback said with his big smile.

Ben nodded and panted for air at the same time. He jumped when he felt Sparkle hug him.

"So, you don't hate us anymore, Uncle Ben?" she asked.

Ben smiled as he held her in her arms. "I never hated you guys. I was just misunderstood about Conductoids, that's all." He kissed her forehead. "That won't happen again."

Shocks playfully ruffled Ben's hair. "What say we go back to Headquarters and get a certain alien back in your Omnitrix?"

Ben smiled and heaved Sparkle onto his shoulders. "Let's."

So, Ben returned to the Plumber base and the Galvan scientists returned Feedback to him.

And what did Ben do after that? He returned to the mansion and spent a fun filled movie night with the aliens.

And ever since that crazy day, Ben had no more nightmares.


End file.
